One day in 2012, UNLV student Lyn Robinson spied a posting on the bulletin board for a photographer for the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center. She was an art major with a concentration on photography. She was also had a deep appreciation of the horror of the Holocaust and what the survivors she would take photos of had endured. Thus began a two year project, during which she took photos of over sixty survivors. Her images are preserved at UNLV Special Collections & Archives. Prints are displayed at the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center. On September 18, 2014, Lyn shared her work for this oral history recording. She is a native of Florida, daughter of a horticulturist father and pianist mother.
In this oral history Michael Mack discusses his early memories of Las Vegas such as attending the Fifth Street School and activities him and his friends participated in. The interview also includes his memories of different members of the Mack family and their activities. He reminisces about his many visits to the Flamingo Hotel as well as being taken by his parent to floor shows. He also discusses what it was like to grow up Jewish in Las Vegas and the way Jews helped build the community.
Oral history interview with Janellen Radoff conducted by Barbara Tabach on September 26, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Radoff discusses training in interior design and architecture, finding employment as a commercial designer, and working at Wynn properties. She also talks about her involvement in the interior design for Congregation Ner Tamid.
Interview with Henry Kronberg by Barbara Tabach in two sessions, February 26 and April 13, 2015. In the first session Kronberg talks about his childhood in Germany and Poland and his experience being imprisoned by the Gestapo, and transported to a concentration camp. He survived the Holocaust and met his wife, and they moved to the United States in 1946. He discusses being reunited with his sister in Las Vegas after decades of searching, and moved his family to Las Vegas in 1962. Kronberg talks about becoming involved with Jewish life here, and his wife, Lillian's involvement at Temple Beth Sholom. In the second session, Kronberg discusses purchasing Stoney's, a loan and pawn shop, including some of the clientele and merchandise. He also discusses other social and environmental concerns like anti-Semitism and water resources in Southern Nevada.
Henry Kronberg was born in 1920 and spent his early childhood in a town on the border of Poland and Germany, about 40 miles from Krakow. For years he felt uncomfortable telling his story of surviving the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Today his name is linked to the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center in Las Vegas. And in his soft-spoken manner, Henry recalls his ordeal of loss of family and survival during this most heinous of situations through backbreaking labor and ingenuity. At the end of the war, Henry met the love of his life, Lillian, also a survivor. The two married in 1946 in Frankfurt and immigrated to New Jersey where she had relatives. He describes their difficulties and the various jobs he held until becoming an excellent baker. Then in 1962 an interesting choice took him to a bar mitzvah in Canada. While there the dinner conversation lead him to a great discovery?his sister Lala had survived and was living in Las Vegas. Soon he moved his wife and daughter to Las Vegas. His first foray into business was with his brother-in-law. However, soon it was important to be independent and to control his own destiny. He purchased a going concern, Stoney's Pawn Shop, from Dr. Alexander Coblentz, one of the city's first doctors. He became the fourth owner of Stoney's and operated it until selling it to Steven Mack in 1998. Henry and his wife were active in the Jewish community. They joined Temple Beth Sholom and became fast friends with many of the early leaders of Las Vegas and became a respected member of the secular and Jewish communities.
In this interview, members of Midbar Kodesh discuss how they each became involved in the synagogue, and how the congregation formed in the mid-1990s. Some of the narrators grew up in Las Vegas and talk about the growth of the town and being former members of Temple Beth Sholom.
Oral history interview with Judy Mack conducted by Barbara Tabach on June 2, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Judy Mack discusses her survival during the Holocaust and her move to San Francisco, California at the age of eleven. She discusses her later move to Reno, Nevada with her husband and son where she grew her family and began a successful pawn shop enterprise before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1990. She goes into detail on her family history as well as her family's current involvement with the Jewish community. Mack also speaks of her involvement with the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center and the other ways she has recorded her history of the Holocaust.
Oral history interview with Joni, Sarah, and Max Fried conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 04, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Joni Fried, her daughter Sarah Fried, and nephew Max Jacobson-Fried share stories of working in the family business, Freed’s Bakery, started by Joni's parents Milton and Esther Fried. They also discuss how computer technologies and social media marketing impacted their early business.
The non-profit Jewish Nevada is the central coordinating body for fundraising, planning, allocations, and community services for the Jewish community in Las Vegas, Nevada and serves as the local chapter of the Jewish Federations of North America. Jewish Nevada has served the community since the 1960s and has raised several million dollars to support Jewish and humanitarian causes in Las Vegas, Israel, and in 59 countries around the world.
Oral history interview with Gilbert "Gil" Shaw conducted by Barbara Tabach on May 03, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Shaw discusses founding group of Congregation Ner Tamid in 1974 that includes himself. He also talks about being a photographer and journalist for the Navy and the Coast Guard during the Korean War and Vietnam War.
Oral history interview with Pauline "Polly" and Jack Weinstein conducted by Barbara Tabach on April 12, 2018 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Jack talks about his upbringing in Detroit, Michigan and getting into the jewelry business. He talks about owning a wholesale jewelry business, relocating to Los Angeles, California, and forming a partnership with Tower of Jewels in Las Vegas, Nevada in the late 1950s. Jack recalls becoming the sole proprietor of Tower of Jewels in Las Vegas and describes his clientele. Jack and and his daughter Polly discuss operating up to ten locations at one time, advertising on the Howard Stern radio show, and their more well-known customers. Lastly, Jack and Polly talk about joining Temple Beth Sholom, Polly’s interests in the jewelry industry, and creating her own line of jewelry.